Macricostas School of Arts & Sciences

Communication & Media Arts

Faculty

Faculty Office Hours Spring 2019

 

Department Chair
Office: 213B Berkshire Hall
Phone: (203) 837-8833
Email: browerj@wcsu.edu
Vita
Jay’s research is clustered around phenomenology, ethnography, and rhetoric, and is directed toward developing an account of individual and collective trauma, in particular as these moments implicate expressions of affect, meaning, and judgment. He has been a WCSU representative to the CSU-AAUP Council for three years and a member of the CSU-AAUP contract negotiation team. Additionally, he serves as WCSU’s representative to the CSCU Faculty Advisory Committee to the Board of Regents. His involvement in CSU-AAUP and current work in the contract negotiating process drive his interest in the protection of our ability to serve students and maintain the integrity of our work.
Sample Courses Taught: COM 200 Language and Communication and COM 267 Rhetoric of American Issues
Krista Brooks
Department Secretary
Office: 214 Berkshire Hall
Phone: (203) 837-9166
Email: brooksk@wcsu.edu
Fax:  (203) 837-8032
Krista is the newest member of the Communications & Media Arts department. She is always willing to lend a helping hand to anyone with questions concerning our department. She is your point of contact on process and procedure. If you have a question, it can’t hurt to start with Krista. Trouble registering? Contact Krista.  Don’t know who your advisor is? Contact Krista.

 

 

Office: 116b Berkshire Hall
Phone: (203) 837-3233
Email: baronej@wcsu.edu
JC has been an active producer/director/ educator for over 20 years. He is the recipient of numerous national awards for his work. JC’s students took 1st & 2nd Place two years in a row in Multi-camera/Studio Production at the BEA competition at the Festival of Media Arts in Las Vegas in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, JC was awarded a Faculty Fellowship at the Television Academy in Los Angeles. He received the Connecticut State University System-wide Teaching Award in 2014.
Sample Courses Taught: COM 247 Live News & Election Coverage and COM 336 Postproduction

 

Office: 223 Berkshire Hall 
Phone: (203) 837-9073
Email: EcheverriaP@wcsu.edu
Vita
Paul is the director and founding faculty member of the Digital Interactive Media Arts program (DIMA). Echeverria has been teaching university-level courses in film, digital, and media arts since 2007. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film) degree from Purchase College, SUNY and a Master of Fine Arts (Interdisciplinary Media Arts) degree from the University of Colorado Boulder. Additionally, he has earned Master’s degrees in Education and Media Studies. His production website can be viewed at www.aurafilm.com.
Sample Courses Taught: DIMA 100 Introduction to Digital Interactive Media and DIMA 200 Design for Digital & Interactive Media

 

Office: 225 Berkshire Hall
Phone: (203) 837-8873
Email: ecksteinj@wcsu.edu
Jessi’s research interests focus on interpersonal communication and pay particular attention to how people (consciously and unconsciously) communicate identities involving “taken-for-granted” societal forces. Her current programs of research all focus on relational communication (e.g., relational uncertainty, power, conflict, love, and sex occurring in violent & nonviolent relationships) as influenced by societal identities (e.g., gender, family roles, stigma, health norms). Dr. Eckstein serves on many campus committees and currently chairs the Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research and the A&S Program Review Committee at WCSU. She is also Director of the Women’s Studies Program.
Sample Courses Taught: COM 210 Nonverbal Communication, COM 390 Research Methods in Communication, and COM 392 Abusive Relationships

 

Jackie Guzda
Jacqueline Guzda, Ph.D.
Office: 212c Berkshire Hall
Phone:  (203) 837-8941
Jackie has taught a variety of courses at WCSU both full and part-time.  She has been a contributor at WNBC (New York) and is a former contributor at EBRU Today.  She was one of five people in the US to receive a National Endowment for the Arts Award in Media (1985). She writes her own podcast of political humor, Politihoot
Sample Courses Taught:  COM 146 Basic Video Production and COM 252 Media Performance Techniques

 

 

Truman KeysTruman R. Keys, Ph.D.

Office: 210c Berkshire Hall
Phone: (203) 837-3234
Email: keyst@wcsu.edu
Vita

Dr. Keys says the most enjoyable classroom experience involves students and him exchanging ideas in an environment where everyone feels respected and valued. During class he discusses his research and the research of his peers. He is passionate about research that addresses communication between people of various social and cultural identities, such as race/ethnicity, income-level/social class, educational-level, traditional/non-traditional family-type, and appearance/body politics, just to name a few. He wants want to understand the impact our identities have on self-esteem and relationship development in organizations and society. It is helpful to present research during class about a concept or key term that students find difficult because showing them how others make sense of it fosters greater understanding.

Sample Courses Taught: COM Health Communication and COM 208 Intercultural Communication

 

Office: 224 Berkshire Hall
Phone: (203) 837-8872
Email: leverk@wcsu.edu
Sample Courses Taught: COM 362 Organizational Communication and COM 390 Research Methods in Communication

 

 

MaryAnn Murtha
Office:  Berkshire 020
Phone: (203) 837-3952

MaryAnn has taught for WCSU for many years.  Teaching is her “happy place.”  Currently, MaryAnn helps to run the First Year Experience Program

Sample Courses Taught: COM 160FY Public Speaking

 

Office: 213C Berkshire Hall
Phone: (203) 837-8255
Bill earned a PhD in Media Ecology from the Steinhart School, New York University and a BA in Communication Arts from SUNY New Paltz. He has been on the faculty here since the 1991-92 academic year teaching courses in media studies and relational communication. During his tenure here at Western, Bill has served as Department Chair, Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Director of Faculty Advising, and the Director of the Honors Program. Bill serves as an Associate Editor of The Atlantic Journal of Communication and as a manuscript reviewer since the inception of that journal. He was the Editor of ETC: A Review of General Semantics 2008-2012. He has published in these and other journals, and presented papers at conferences regionally, nationally and internationally on communication and culture, pedagogy, and semiotics.
Sample Courses Taught:  COM 230 History of Mass Media and COM 480 Media Criticism

 

Office: 213A Berkshire Hall
Phone:(203) 837-8260
Katy earned a Ph.D. in Communication from the the University of Massachusetts, Amherst–focusing on discourse analysis, power, and social control. Her undergraduate degree is in Germanic Languages and Literatures proving that it doesn’t really matter what you major in, and you never know where you will end up! Katy came to WCSU eons ago, and has done many jobs here with the exception of dishwasher. Katy believes in making what you learn relevant to life, as well as making the world a better place–interaction by interaction. She will happily discuss the great Germanic sound shift with you as well as ablaut.
Sample Courses Taught: COM 212 Effective Listening and COM 245 Meditation, Self-Awareness and Communication